Many persons suffer from a non-functioning or malfunctioning sphincter which controls the discharge of fluids through a body passage. This condition may be caused by congenital malformations, trauma to the sphincter nerves or muscles, or disease of the sphincter nerves or muscles.
One of the most troublesome and embarrassing of such conditions is the malfunctioning of the urethral sphincter. The urethral sphincter retains the urine in the bladder until the sphincter is relaxed to permit passage of urine from the bladder. When the urethral sphincter malfunctions, uncontrollable drainage of urine from the bladder may occur. Obviously, this can be embarrassing to the individual and can restrict his activities.
Attempts have been made in the past to provide an artificial sphincter to substitute for a malfunctioning urethral sphincter or to provide means for controlling artificial openings that have no natural sphincters. Most of the prior art artificial sphincters include inflatable balloons that can be inflated to obstruct or collapse the body passage so that fluid cannot flow through the passage. Representative of such artificial sphincters is that disclosed in the Reinicke U.S. Pat. No. 4,167,952 issued Sept. 18, 1979. The Reinicke device includes a pump, a reservoir for inflating fluid, an inflatable balloon and a relatively complex pressure control valve for controlling the flow of inflating fluid from and to the inflatable balloon.